With the Playoffs underway for the EPICENTER Major 2019, Dota 2 teams Vici Gaming and Team Liquid are expected to fight it out for the first Grand Finals spot.
The tournament is crucial for Team Liquid, as this is the first major tournament that they are playing without Lasse “MATUMBAMAN” Urpalainen. MATU has since joined Chaos Esports Club and has been replaced by Aliqi “w33” Omar. Even with the change, Liquid started the tournament with a strong performance. The team beat Gambit Esports and Evil Geniuses to get the top spot after the Group Stage.
In the first round of the Playoff Stage, Liquid faced off against PSG.LGD. In the first game, Liquid’s Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Ivanov had a strong showing supported by w33 on Windranger. Liquid took the first game above the 40-minute mark. In the second game, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi took lead of the charge, finishing with 14 kills.
The second game was against Virtus.pro. Liquid rolled over their opponents as the first game finished around 23 minutes in, and both Miracle- and w33 had no deaths. VP took back the second game despite excellent performance from Miracle-. However, the third game was pretty much like the first one, with w33 taking the lead on Templar Assassin and ending the game with 10 kills and just 2 deaths.
Like Liquid, Vici Gaming took the top spot in its group beating out Forward Gaming and Alliance. In the Playoffs, VG went against Gambit. VG dominated the first game with three team members getting zero deaths and limiting Gambit to six team kills. The second game was more of the same, with the main difference being Gambit limited to four team kills.
The second match was not as easy, with VG taking on TNC Predator. During the Group Stage, TNC had beaten both OG and Ninjas in Pyjamas. In a game that took more than 50 minutes, TNC grabbed the win on strong performance from Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte and team capatain Nico “eyyou” Barcelon. The second game lasted almost 50 minutes. Even with 13 kills from Gabbi on his Storm Spirit, it wasn’t enough as VG won the game. Zhang “Paparazi” Chengjun and Zeng “ori” Jiaoyang ended the game with double digits in terms of kills. The third game was shorter, and it appeared that VG wasn’t taking any chances. VG didn't give TNC any chance and ended with 24 team kills against 11 from TNC.
Entering the fourth day of the Playoffs, the teams eliminated so far are Fnatic, EG, Infamous, paiN Gaming, Forward Gaming, and Royal Never Give Up. Two surprising eliminations so far are Team Secret, who was swept 0-2 by OG, and NiP, who lost 0-2 against Gambit.
